National School Walkout a chance to send Congress a message on gun laws

Saul Martinez/The New York Times

A mother embraces her son as they arrive at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018, returning to school for the first time since 17 people were killed at the school two weeks earlier.

A mother embraces her son as they arrive at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018, returning to school for the first time since 17 people were killed at the school two weeks earlier. (Saul Martinez/The New York Times)

Marjory Stoneman Douglas, known as the “Grand Dame of the Everglades” for her defense of it, was a relentless advocate for women’s suffrage, civil rights and the environment before her name was entrusted to a high school in Parkland, Florida, for safe keeping and posterity. Then last month, a former student shot and killed 17 people there, and now her name is associated with all that bloodshed and heartbreak and gun violence instead of how she stood up to politicians and lobbyists for many years.

The context of her name has already changed again. Students at her namesake are living up to it, squaring off with President Donald Trump and Dana Loesch of the National Rifle Association, organizing a “March for our Lives” in Washington, D.C., for 500,000 people on March 24, refusing to accept a world without common-sense gun regulation. And now they’re inspiring students elsewhere.

Hundreds of students walked out of classes to protest school gun violence in both Baltimore and Boston last week. Far more are expected to walk out coast to coast this coming Wednesday to call on Congress to pass sensible gun legislation as part of an organized effort that will involve dozens of San Diego County schools and thousands nationwide.

The National School Walkout is drawing comparisons to Los Angeles protests in 1968 when 22,000 students “stormed out of class” and committed what the Los Angeles Times called “the first act of mass militancy by Mexican Americans in modern California history.” That’s some historic company.

Fifty years later, these Florida shooting survivors have already changed the conversation on guns more than anyone thought possible — and moved Florida to bar those younger than 21 from buying guns, require a three-day wait for most gun purchases and ban the sale or possession of bump stocks. These gun-control measures, signed into law Friday, are the first in 20 years of GOP state control.

Nationally, Dick’s Sporting Goods and Walmart have both stopped selling guns to anyone under 21, amid blowback. The retailers have already been sued, and likely face more lawsuits but aren’t backing down. Neither are the Florida students whose efforts to keep guns in the news have fallen prey in recent days to steel tariffs, Stormy Daniels and Kim Jong Un but whose determination is infectious.

Douglas herself can help explain the tireless mindset of these students, so ridiculously vilified last month by conspiracists as paid “crisis actors.”

In 1983, Douglas was booed at a public hearing. “Can’t you boo any louder than that?” came her retort. “I’ve been here since 8 o’clock. It’s now 11. I’ve got all night, and I’m used to the heat.”

With Congress unable to act on its own, tougher gun laws may take hundreds of thousands of high school students. So it’s reassuring to hear they won’t be punished for walking out in many school districts or when applying to numerous colleges — and that teachers are being reminded to respect students who stay in class. A massive peaceful walkout will send a strong message to Congress. We’ll soon see how strong. We’ll soon see how many students follow in Marjory Stoneman Douglas’ footsteps.